This is a man’s world, says the great song, and for many people this is something that is normal and the way thing should be. The other part of that song states that the man’s world ain’t nothing without a woman, and that seems to ease some romantic souls. But there are also people who will say that this is also not enough and that world should be a place of equality where both men and women have the same rights and freedoms. So where are we and how far we are from that ideal distribution of power?

Wealth – male and female population are similar by number through out the world but when looked at other aspects of the two genders we can see that women are the poorer gender. Seventy percent of all poor persons are women. That means that two out of three poor persons is female. Numbers of rich women are even lower, female CEOs are not nearly as numerous as their male counterparts and the same goes when you look at the number of millionaires by gender. The fact is that women are fewer in those ranks and while some say that is due to the fact that women don’t strive for such high goals, others see inequality in rights.

Education – when it comes to education, numbers are bad, too. It is said that women are less likely to get higher education than men and it goes to the drastic differences in certain cultures and countries. There are large actions and organizations fighting for the freedom of female school girls in the countries where they are taught that it is wrong for them to get education and where it is only normal for men to be educated. When you look at the adult illiterate population of the world, 64% are women, which is a big difference in numbers. This is an issue that will have to be addressed if we are to progress as a society.

Violence – as a weaker gender, women are exposed to the various acts of violence every day. From domestic violence and mobbing to forced marriage in certain countries and sex slavery situation looks worse by the day. Every year, almost half of the murdered women are killed by their spouses and it is estimated that 25% of women in the world gets physically abused during their pregnancy. Every year, almost 40 thousand girls are forced to marriage without any say in it and it is a number is so large that it hides the real impact this information should have on us.

Influence – as far as politics and democracy go, there is no equality for women, at least judging by the numbers. Only 22% of women are taking seats of parliaments worldwide and less than one in 10 CEOs is female. When you look at the number of lady presidents, statistic is almost funny – only 5% of the world’s countries are run by women. And to make it worse, around 100 countries are still using the laws in which women are prohibited from dealing with economy or politics.